12 Reasons Social Media Marketing is Important for Your Business

If you do not have a social media marketing strategy yet, than it is time to craft it and start writing quality content for a target audience of your choice. And here is a list of reasons why you need this strategy as soon as possible for the sake of your business success.

Almost everyone we know uses the social media. Some people who specialize in this area state that at least half of the world’s population has the Internet connection. In fact, Internet Live Stats confirms that this number is around 3.4 billion people.

Meanwhile, at least 80% of all Internet users are registered at least on one of the social media giants like Facebook or Twitter. That’s quite a target audience!

For this reason, more professionals are aiming to reach users of social networks and try to convert them from potential clients into regular ones.

Studies have shown that social media marketing can increase your sales up to twice of their average amount. Moreover, they bring you more customers and make your brand well-known among people of different backgrounds.

If you do not have a social media marketing strategy yet, than it is time to craft it and start writing quality content for a target audience of your choice. And here is a list of reasons why you need this strategy as soon as possible for the sake of your business success.

1. It is cost effective.

Despite new monetization policies, advertisement via social media is still much cheaper than advertisement with the aid of, for instance, Google AdWords. In fact, the price difference beats the $50 mark.
Therefore, you can save a lot of money and still spread the word about your product.

2. Everyone you need is there.

From the numbers we mentioned above you can see that all the people you target with your marketing strategy are online on one social media or another. So, thanks to customizable ads opportunities, you will be able to appear in the newsfeed of all the potential clients you want. On top of that, it is quite affordable. So, you won’t be overcharged for such services.

3. Creating profiles there is free.

It is as good as it sounds, you can create a profile for your company online for free just like any other user of the social media.
So, you can be present online and pay nothing for it whatsoever.

As the world is slowly shifting to mobile-friendly systems, more and more people opt to use mobile devices to check their social profiles, read the latest news, or shop online.
That’s why, being registered on the social network is essential if you want to increase your sales and reach out to those with smartphones and other mobile devices.

5. You will reach those you did not know before.

Thanks to the services like those of the Hootsuite, companies can now target potential clients who searched for goods they are producing. The principle is based on keywords. It is safe and highly efficient, especially when it comes to targeting customers that are interested in what you have to offer.

6. You will keep up with your rivals.

According to Social Times, around 90% of companies use multiple social platforms to make their sales bigger.
If you are not among those ninety percent yet, we highly recommend you getting an account in order to keep up with the latest trends. Otherwise, your rivals will have access to clients you cannot reach.

7. It makes all businesses equal.

Social network is a platform where all the businesses start at the same level. Thus, everyone has an equal chance to succeed and attract more clients through such channels.
All you need to do is to deliver valuable information in a fun and entertaining way as well as establish your brand as the most trustworthy among numerous choices available. So, if you want to increase your revenue, start the registration process right now!

8. Social media make your brand personal.

Unlike other brands with fancy covers and stunning design, you keep in contact and talk to your clients personally while still having all the fanciness too. You can solve issues your clients experience right away or engage in discussions.
There are many ways how one can create a stronger image with the aid of social media. However, regardless of a method, it is absolutely worth it.

9. It strengthens clients’ loyalty.

Since you are available and easy to reach, clients will like you better than other brands. It is all a matter of customer support and interaction with real people online.
You come on stage and demonstrate your clients what your company and product are all about, what your values and goals are, etc. They can bond with you and it results in increased customers' loyalty.

10. People get to hear you.

When you say something on social media, people tend to hear you. Such platforms are not perceived as marketing tools but rather as platforms for socializing. So, the advertising on these platforms is easier and more different than elsewhere. People consider you as one of them, not as a producer of an individual product.

11. It drives traffic to your website.

Thanks to links and ads which can be adjusted to your needs and expectations, you get way more traffic than before. Besides, thanks to correctly crafted strategies, people spend more time on the website. So, when using social media, you draw significantly more traffic to the website.

12. You can reach more clients in a shorter time.

As you probably noticed, people skip commercials on TV and seem to be fed up with the annoying ads in their favorite magazines. However, when created correctly, ads on the social media can bring in a lot of money and promote your brand like no other tool.

So, why spend your time and money on something less efficient?

Social marketing is the future no matter what you think about it. People tend to spend hours scrolling through their news feeds on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other giants. So, don’t underestimate their power and register your brand there today. How does it sound?

10 Advertising Trends that Ruled the Industry in 2017

Restricted ad spending plans look out the most financially savvy media channels and demand all the more value for their money.

While the Internet has fared superior to anything TV, radio and print, the progressions that are occurring today will change the substance of online advertising until the end of time.

Everybody required with online business needs to comprehend what is going on or they'll be left on the platform after the prepare has left the station.

1. Publishers in Quiet, But Deadly War, With Ad Agencies

Publishers need to pitch their inventory to the most elevated bidder. They need to push their normal ad rates up by offering the nature of their audiences. They need to alter the course of print dollars, digital dimes.

Ad agencies need to demonstrate their incentive to their customers, the enormous advertisers, by paying for ads based on the esteem they convey. This will bring about paying more for some ad space, yet less for a large portion of it.

The publishers control access to the audience.

The ad agencies control access to the ad spending plans.

Who will flicker first?

This fight is the background to a large number of alternate Trends.

2. Big Online Publishers Take Ad Sales Inhouse

The major online publishers (MySpace, AOL, TMZ, Time Warner) are bringing ad sales back in-house following frustrating results from the ad networks (Advertising.com, Microsoft Advertising, Adjug, Adconian, and so forth). Ad networks now have the notoriety for going for amount as opposed to quality, and in spite of advanced behavioral investigation instruments, navigate rates have kept on falling underneath 0.1 for each penny.

3. Ad Networks Will Decline

As a greater amount of the enormous publishers dismiss the ad networks the expansive influence will imply that more medium size and small publishers will scrutinize the esteem they are giving. The outcome will be the ad networks will enter a winding of decline.

4. Ads Get Bigger and More Intrusive

Ad networks, which are generally keep running by individuals with traditional advertising backgrounds, are reacting to their declining fortunes by making greater and more intrusive ads. Fortune.com has had a full screen, "over-the-page" ad that covers their homepage for quite a while, yet now even sites like Techcrunch are trialing them. Aside from spam emails, there is no other adverting group that bothers and pesters Internet clients more. Ideally this is a passing Trend, once publishers and advertisers realize that irritating their audience is no real way to build a brand.

5. Advertising Dollars Seep into The Long Tail

Advertisers keep on looking for methods for getting to their objective market through smaller authority websites. The ROI is vastly improved from these sites, yet there is a higher overhead overseeing sales to smaller sites. The business is concocting arrangements however to address this market in a financially savvy way.

6. Aggregation and Optimization

To empower advertisers to achieve smaller sites and to empower smaller publishers to get ad incomes from the greatest advertisers there is a Trend to total ads and sites and after that consequently serve the ads based on a real-time sell off process. This bodes well to advertisers and publishers, yet side-lines delegates like the ad agencies.

The two sorts of organization filling this need are the ad exchanges, as DoubleClick Ad Exchange and AdvertiseSpace and the ad income optimization services, similar to Rubicon Project and PubMatic. The two gatherings are centred around amassing advertisers and publishers and serving the best ad into the best site based on a real-time closeout to build up a reasonable cost.

The Trend of aggregation and optimization will proceed.

7. Ad Agencies Fight Back with Demand Side Platforms

In light of their falling impact, ad agencies are grouping together to make complex ad serving platforms which have turned out to be known as Demand Side Platforms.

The objective of these services is to accurately quantify the arrival on speculation of every ad and afterward pay as needs be. For instance, if an ad on a landing page is clicked and is followed direct to a deal it would have a high esteem. An ad served on a news page that isn't clicked would have a low esteem. While this appears to give a legitimate method to value ads, publishers contend that it commoditises their content, site and audience and wipes out the delicate advantages of brand building.

8. Social Media Advertising

The huge online networking sites are under developing strain to realize their potential by discovering ad serving arrangements which don't outrage their clients while giving great results to advertisers. Experimentation on services like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and MySpace will proceed.

9. Advertising Will Go Mobile on Via Smartphones and Apps

The cell phone companies have attempted to discover a method for contacting their mobile audience with ads. SMS has bombed hopelessly in light of the fact that it is excessively intrusive. Presently the iPhone and Android phones have at long last opened up this new frontier. Smartphones and apps give dozens of approaches to serve ads to mobile clients in ways which give their customers real esteem e.g. location based rebate vouchers. Google's securing of Admob for $750m and Apple's obtaining of Quattro Wireless for $275m, both mobile advertising companies, recommend the mobile ad attack is going to begin vigorously.

10. Advertisers Go Direct

Enormous brands have realized the capability of the web to empower them to build a relationship coordinate with their customers, or at any rate, do things online which emphatically represent their brand. These associations are putting marketing funds into making apps, Twittering, building web services, and so forth. On the off chance that these exercises are effective, a greater amount of their ad spending plan could be doled out to coordinate online exercises.

Summary:

These are extremely fascinating times in the online advertising world. There are a ton of turf wars, experimentation, and new services developing. Publishers need to discover a method for increasing ad income, ad agencies need to demonstrate they add esteem and advertisers need to guarantee they are getting increasing ROI on their spend in an ever noisier marketplace.

These are intriguing times with numerous open doors and dangers to all gatherings. The nimble will prosper, the moderate will come up short.

How to Engage Your Website Visitors With Customized Messages

Setting up personalized messages that target the visitors to your website is a smart move. By reaching out to them, you will stand out as a brand that takes care of the experience of its visitors and wants to provide them with as much assistance as possible.

Customer engagement may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you hear about chat, but chat has become a critical communication tool today.

Companies are now using live chat in proactive ways to approach customers and offer help while they are browsing their website. It works similarly to a sales assistant at the store – once the customer enters a shop, they will always be greeted and asked whether they need help.

That way, customers know that they can reach out to the sales assistant if they have any questions. Moreover, after the customer spends some time in the store, it is natural to offer assistance because they might need help and are more likely to accept it.

That's how chat works on websites.

Chat applications allow organizations to make the most of the information about customer behavior, geographical location, or the page they are visiting to start a contextualized conversation that brings results. If used skillfully by a well-trained team, chat applications may help you create extremely positive relationship with your customers, and see more and more of potential customers coming to your website.

Here are some excellent reasons why you need a customized chat on your website:

Higher conversion – customized greetings that start chats with visitors help to engage and convert them. Visitors invited to chat are 3 times more likely to turn into customers. 61% of these customers will convert within the first chat.

You can follow the customer journey and offer contextual help without having to observe customers' behavior all the time – smart chats apps offer sophisticated website monitoring features and constantly analyze visitor information to help create messages that are relevant and contextualized. Even if you're not in front of your computer, you can be sure that customers will be greeted and offered help.

Customized messages deliver personalized help that brings higher customer satisfaction – personalized greetings for customers that directly relate to their previous actions on your website or information you have about them work wonders.

Now that you know why customized messages are so important for your website's user experience, here are some examples of messages you can use to start chatting with your visitors.

Starting a conversation

Companies usually start their work with customized messages by setting up automated greetings that start a chat with visitors. In most cases, such greetings are displayed after a visitor spends around 30 seconds on a website.

But to make the most of these automated messages, it's a good idea to greet visitors at the right moment with a message that relates to what they are viewing on the website. That way, you will encourage them to start chatting with you.

For example, visitors who are looking through your product pages could receive the following greeting: 'Do you see anything you like? We're here for you if you've got any questions about our products.'

Another good occasion to start a chat is when you notice that the customer spends time on your website without taking any action. Start chatting with them in real time to see whether they need any extra information or help with placing the order. By initiating the chat, you will be helping them start the conversation.

Start chatting on the pricing page

Visitors who spend a lot of time on your pricing page might be considering a purchase, but they're not sure which option is best for them. If they abandon your page at this time, the chances are high that they will never come back.

That's why you should reach out to them at this moment and help solve their doubts. Otherwise, you will be missing out on an important opportunity for conversion. All it takes is sending a message like 'Hello, please let me know whether you've got any questions about our pricing.'

Get the chat going on contact pages

It makes sense that customers who open your 'Contact us' page wants to get in touch with you. So why not reach out to them first? You can set up a message like 'Hello, you can always reach out to us in this chat if you prefer typing to talking on the phone.' That type of greeting will pay off in more exceptional user experience on your website.

Here's how to engage returning visitors

Another important use of customized messages is for re-engaging visitors who are returning to your website, essential for customer retention. That type of greeting will help visitors to remember you and engage with your brand better.

You can write a message like ' Hello, welcome back to our website. If you got any questions, we are here for you.' If you notice that the customer visits the same page with a specific product, you can create an even more creative and personalized message, for example: 'Still not sure whether this product works for you? Drop us a line here; we'll be happy to help you out.'

Use messages to reduce cart abandonment

If you run an online store, cart abandonment is probably one of the most severe problems you encounter. Customized messages help to reduce the cart abandonment rate significantly. All it takes is starting a chat and offering guidance to visitors throughout the process of placing an order or filling out a form. By reaching out to them, you will motivate visitors to complete the process or offer them a convenient place to ask further questions before they finish their task.

Setting up personalized messages that target the visitors to your website is a smart move. By reaching out to them, you will stand out as a brand that takes care of the experience of its visitors and wants to provide them with as much assistance as possible.

24 Payment Tools for Small Business, Startups and Freelancers

The right selection of payment gateway depends on the type of business you have. The options explained ensure faster payments and a secure environment for both parties.

Consider a list of 25 payment tools for your business.

1. PayPal

It is a secure and open payment gateway that can process debit and credit card payments. One of the popular online payment solution for both a merchant account and payment gateway. It sets up a quick and easy way to allow its merchants to accept credit cards. It handles 60% of all the web transactions.

The setup and cancellations fees charge at a flat rate and transaction fee dependent on the volume of payments and business processes.

PayPal features:

It offers a shopping cart and checkout system

Security features add advantage, reduces the possibility of breach

2. Braintree

Braintree helps businesses of all sizes from small to large enterprises. It helps to accept and process payments to maximize business opportunities and revenue growth. It offers the tools that give the customers a seamless user experience. It powers more than just payments:

Accept direct payments

It helps the marketplace businesses to process payments and pay out their sellers or providers

3. Authorize.Net

Authorize.Net ensures rapid and secure transmission of transaction data. It also manages the routing of transactions with no software needed for implementation and installation. It provides a reliable platform, scalability and numerous value added services to manage and protect themselves from the crowd. Also, manage transactions, configure account settings, and generate reports using the platform. This online payment system accepts credit cards and electronic checks from websites and deposit funds automatically.

4. Forte

The complete payment solution Forte accepts all major credit cards, debit cards, and checks. Forte makes the best of the feature rich gateway designed to withstand security, performance, flexibility, and reliability.

Every transaction is smooth, swift and secure transmitted forward for processing

Sends the payment data securely to all major CC Processors

You can even have access to the best features like virtual terminal, cloud reporting, recurring transaction engine, payment tokenization and secure payment forms.

5. Pesopay

The Pesopay payment gateway is an incredibly easy way to accept credit cards, ATM debit cards, e-wallets and cash on the website. Choose Pesopay as the right tool to make you succeed online. It offers the widest selection of payment services ranging from online, mobile and point-of-sale payments. Securely accept credit card payments from thousands of nation worldwide.

6. Paydollar

Enable easy and secure way of online transactions with Pay Dollar Payment Gateway! Look for the reliable, flexible and secure payment mode to maximize profitability. Manage secure and smooth online payment solutions. Operate with the payment gateway that reduces cost and increases conversions all through one.

7. Alipay

Alipay payment gateway has supported transactions in 14 major foreign currencies. The services are trusted and secure with free transactions within China. The additional escrow services allow verifying the products before releasing the payment. It offers one stop solution with the flexible, safe and secure online payment. Avail documentation in different languages for quick and easy setup. It provides complete customer experience and real time monitoring. Also, avail wide variety of payment methods ranging from online, mobile and point of sale payments. It allows payments with Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, Web Money, and QIWI.

8. FirstData

First Data gains higher volume to make online transactions with great ease, user-friendliness, and security. It is an ideal choice for mail/phone order as it allows an unlimited number of simultaneous users to take orders and process transactions. The key features include:

Customers can pay with major card types including Visa, Master cards, American express, and Rupay

Customize the hosted payment page by uploading own logo, changing fonts and color schemes, preview the page before publishing it

9. 2CO

2CO allows companies to accept online and mobile payments from buyers around the world. It has a host of capabilities designed to meet both customers and merchants. The platform supports a variety of transactions across multiple payment methods and supports markets across the globe. The entire checkout experience maximizes the conversions by adapting to the local aspects of your industry. The 2Checkout features include:

Multiple payment methods

Multi currency support of up to 87 currencies,

Multi language support of up to 15 languages

Customized checkout options: standard and inline

Integration with more than 100 online shopping carts and invoicing systems

10. Moneris Solutions

Protect your business with Moneris payment gateway solutions. You can able to reduce potential fraudulent transactions in real time. It delivers processing capabilities through payment processing software, e-commerce solutions and point-of-sale hardware. It can easily send payment request to the clients and once the clients make payments the money is automatically transferred to your account.

11. PSiGate

PSiGate ensures to maintain secure and reliable online payment methods and using this payment gateway through Invoicera, you can really enjoy the ease of dealing in online payments. Its servers obtain credit authorization and provide tracking and reporting of all the transactions. The PSiGate merchant solution is supported by SSL transaction protocol which allows your client's transactions to be processed through internet. Your clients can process multiple transactions at the same time which saves their valuable time.

12. Beanstream

Bean stream links customers, merchants, and financial institutions and facilitates electronic transactions. Bean stream provides credit card processing, recurring billing, electronic funds transfer, automated clearing house payment processing and authentication services, along with routing of selected transactions to third party processors and banks for authorization and settlement and check recovery services. Bean stream also provide a suite of tools to help in the identification and reduction of online fraud.

13. PayGate secure payments

Making online payments through Pay Gate is another better option for you as it provides all kinds of e-commerce internet credit card processing services to its customers. It accepts multiple payment methods through a single payment gateway and provides a cost effective method to accept bank transfer payments from overseas. It also lets you access its single-interface payment solutions. It is now integrated for processing credit cards to more than 70 banks worldwide for merchants who qualify for merchant facility with their respective banks.

14. Siampay

Enable a safe and secure platform for all the business transactions. Handle payments easily with the simplified network options.

15. NETWORK

NETWORK online payment solutions have become an important catalyst in the field of online payment services. It has its unique benefits enrolled into it:

Provide the validated account number

Customers pre-define their account for e-debit purchases

Merchants can view and reconcile e-debit payments that are to be customized according to the date, account number and reference number.

16. Stripe

Stripe is an online credit card processor designed keeping in mind the small business owners and online merchants. The vast selection of features easily takes away all the pains of accepting credit card payments via online channels.

User friendly platform that simplified checkout process for the customers

Easy set up with no installation charges and hidden fees

Simple intuitive and user friendly dashboard with minimum design

Offers a secure and flexible way to accept credit card information

Very simple and no hassle free pricing

17. Moneybookers

Link point is called the First Data Global Gateway SM Virtual Terminal that enables to make online transactions at a user-friendliness and greater degree of security. It is an administrative portal included with all versions of Link point gateway. You can easily track and perform recurring transactions allowing an unlimited number of simultaneous users to take orders and process transactions. Enter your credit card details and enjoy dealing with online payments.

18. Virtual Card Services

The growing e-commerce market has raised the secure payment mechanisms. It is recognized as the player in the online payment gateway effectively, securely and in real-time. It has provided dedicated service while remaining competitively cost efficient. Virtual card services acts as the intermediary between the vendor and the financial institution via its virtual vendor system. Virtual Card Services provides the collective experience in developing and implementing credit, debit and smart card processing systems to all its customers.

19. RazorPay

Empower your business with the right set of tools to accept online payments. Get into the driver's seat of your payments ecosystem. It allows powerful and lightweight mobile SDKs for Android and Ios. Accept international payments, cards, wallets, net banking. You can easily spend time making great products not reading redundant docs.

20. Setcom

Setcom payment gateway has been a leading South African payment service provider. It provides ecommerce businesses WITH SECURE PROCESSING OF MOBILE AND ONLINE CREDIT CARD and EFT transactions. Focus on your growing businesses by ensuring simplicity, security, speed and all.

21. Paymate

Receive electronic payments securely in your business. Also set payment processing modes to the business partners in 3 simple steps. Simplify your payment process keeping existing payment approval workflow. Also eliminate cost and paper inefficiencies. Manage your cash flow at your convenience and processes at a fraction of the time and cost of cash and cheque payments.

Track the status of the payments anywhere anytime and get real time visibility. Choose the fraction of the time and cost to connect with all your customers and suppliers

22. Sageway

Sage Pay has the highest level of data security and shoppers are protected against fraud. It includes 24/7 comprehensive online support through our website. It meets all payment needs that lets you manage in-store and online transactions in a single place. Switching to the payment services helps every step of the way. Sage Pay offers all the features including 24/7 telephone support, advanced fraud screening tools and flexible payment options. Our standard package meets all the features without any hidden costs. This is why thousands of business already entrust their security to us.

23. iTransact

ITransact services opens up new forefront of changing technology. It offers all the protection and security for the mobile credit card processing. It also allows business to receive payment authorizations in real-time and accepts payments anytime anywhere. ITransact is also able to share customer data with you. It also offers unsurpassed security and fast, reliable transaction processing every time with other providers. It also includes a virtual terminal that allows to key in credit card numbers received anywhere anytime. Manually, it enters the most payment information using the computer system and easily transmits transaction batches. It can also safely store and retrieve customer information

24. Citrus

The payment gateway offers unique features such as in app purchases, single click checkout and more that favors the complete stack of payment architecture. The most popular payment gateway supports absolute security for consumers. It guarantees great payment services for thousands of merchants; optimize online purchases with millions of transactions and more. It is supported on all devices like Android, Ios and windows. It appears one channel for all processing such as enable/disable payment modes, refund transactions and more.

As you build your business, different payment gateways possess different fees and security. It increases the complexity for both merchants and paying customers.